Since the birth of this site, it’s been no secret we are huge Child’s Play and Chucky fans. The launch of the original version of TrueHorror.net intentionally coincided with the release of 2013’s Curse of Chucky. Since then we have made many new friends and acquaintances. many of whom are big Chucky fans themselves. One of those people would be our friend Travis Falligant who is an extremely talented illustrator and designer, widely known for his Lost Mysteries series which combined classic Scooby Doo characters interacted with modern horror icons. For a while now we have been trying to find some kind of project to collaborate on and the recent news of a new Chucky film seemed to finally provide the opportunity.

About two weeks ago it was finally revealed that the new Chucky film entitled Cult of Chucky was about to begin filming. As a lover of the art of the one sheet who enjoys creating my own, I started to think about what a Cult of Chucky poster could look like. Apparently Travis had been thinking the same thing because in his excitement he drew up a really cool concept for one and posted it on his twitter account. I loved his idea as some of the elements mirrored some of my ideas I would have liked to see on the poster, so while having a general discussion on art, it dawned on me that I would like to try to bring his drawing to life. I had already designed a poster for the original Child’s Play film years ago, so this was something I was passionate about and excited to try. Travis liked the idea and gave his blessing to do so, and that led to me getting started rather quickly since I had a template to go off of and knew what it would take to do achieve the end result I was looking for. I went ahead and dug my Good Guy doll out of storage and got to work.

Putting the pieces was a relatively fast process. I shot the doll first which allowed me to plan out the layout on the poster. Then added the pentagram symbol beneath him. Once I had that in place, I added placeholder text and tested out various textures. For the cultist’s I had a buddy of mine Dany, don the robe and mask and do various “culty” poses. Then after trying a few out on the actual image, I selected the ones that worked the best for the poster overall. I was surprised how well they ended up working out. Travis original drawing has some smoke in the background and it wasn’t really working well for me in “live action” until I opted to change the smoke to red and really downplay it’s presence in the image. The color for me helped the cult members tie together with the Good Guy doll and circle on the top half. The border is there to honor the border in the original drawing, even if it is slightly different. When it came to choosing the font for the title, I really just went back to an old favorite that felt appropriate as a throwback styled text. For me the font brought the whole thing together nicely. Lastly I was having issues getting the “gleam” on the eye just right, so I reached out to my pal Matt Durston (who helped me create the Found Footage 3D poster) and he was able to deliver that small but vital last detail.

While we don’t even know if an actual cult will be present in Cult of Chucky, (remember the “curse” in Curse of Chucky? yeah there really wasn’t one) and the current synopsis really doesn’t mention them. Travis original image obviously is a literal play on the title, and my recreation of it further illustrates a cults involvement. Particularly the tagline I came up with “Give Us The Power We Beg Of You” is an obvious homage and play on the famous voodoo chant Chucky has recited in practically every film “Give Me The Power I Beg Of You”. My reasoning behind the tagline is that in my head and I imagine Travis’s as well, this titular cult worships Chucky in some form. My idea behind that concept would be (again this is just me making this up) that they worship him and want to learn his secrets of life after death as he did John from the original Child’s Play. So the tagline is essentially them praying to Chucky rather than the traditional “Damballa”, the voodoo god whom Chucky prays to.

In the end as a huge Chucky fan, I know this poster may not end up reflecting what ends up being in the actual film. However, I also know that it was a great concept by another big Chucky fan, and it was fun to create my own interpretation to bring it to life for all you horror and Chucky fans to see. I think regardless of it’s accuracy to the films content, it is still a really cool and fun image that I am really proud of how it turned out and I thank Travis for giving me the green light to do so. Hope you all dig it and if so, please feel free to share this post and image on social media. Would love for Don Mancini and the Cult of Chucky crew to get to see it. Also be sure to follow Travis on Instagram and Twitter for more of his great work.

Original Cult of Chucky poster art by Travis Falligant

Cult of Chucky One Sheet by TrueHorror.net inspired by art of Travis Falligant